Tweet
ABC, Australia
June 24 2013
Caucasus farmers a picture of climate change
By Kieran Cooke ABC Environment 24 Jun 2013
Armenian farms have suffered devastating losses from changed weather
patterns. But their experience may become unremarkable as climate
change takes hold.
IT HAPPENED AS Tigran Gasparian and his family were having lunch. A
massive black cloud turned day to night in minutes. Then the hail
hammered on the roof.
"It was deafening", says Tigran. "I've never seen anything like it.
The winds swirled around - like a tornado. It went on for 45 minutes.
At the end the hail was falling in big pieces like bits of broken
glass. We knew all our crops had been destroyed."
Farmers here have heard talk of climate change: many say the summers -
when temperatures can reach near to 40°C - are becoming hotter while
winters are getting colder.
"Maybe the climate is changing" says Anoosh, Gasparian's wife. "Or
maybe the hail was sent by God as punishment for the way our country
is chopping down its forests and destroying its landscape."
Armenia, a small country in the South Caucasus region with a
population of a little over three million, is highly dependent on its
agriculture and is famous for its fruits and herbs. Agriculture
accounts for about 20 per cent of gross domestic product.
Cut to shreds
Most of the country's 340,000 farms are relatively small with plots of
one hectare or less: there is little spare cash to fall back on when
crops fail.
"Our apricots, peaches, watermelons, and tomatoes were cut to shreds,"
says Tigran. "Usually we'd harvest about 35 tonnes of grapes - this
year we'll be lucky if we have 50 kilos."
The Gasparians' land is in the Ararat Valley, about an hour and a
half's drive from Yerevan, Armenia's capital. Sitting under the shade
of cherry trees - a cuckoo calling in the distance and the snow capped
peak of Mount Ararat in Turkey on the horizon - it is, in many ways, a
perfect pastoral scene.
But life here is tough. Produce has to be taken along badly potholed
roads to the capital. Armenia, until 1991, was part of the old Soviet
Union. For many farmers, adjusting to a market economy has not been
easy. Many are leaving the land: both the Gasparians' sons - now in
their 20s - are going soon to jobs in Russia.
"With our crops destroyed, there is nothing for us here" says one.
Changing weather
There are often hailstorms in Armenia and throughout the rugged and
mountainous Caucasus region but the ferocity of this one - happening
in mid May when crops were just coming to life - was highly unusual.
Armenia is a mountainous country with a generally arid climate and is
judged to be particularly vulnerable to changes in climate. Zaruhi
Petrosyan is a meteorologist at Armenia's Ministry of Emergency
Situations.
"Usually hailstorms last for only five or seven minutes" she says.
"This was a very strange meteorological phenomenon. There are changing
weather patterns in some regions but just how significant these are is
difficult to estimate."
Petrosyan says while calculations are changing all the time, Armenia
is likely to see temperatures rise by between one and four degrees
Celsius by century's end though average rainfall is likely to drop by
six per cent.
But international bodies predict a far greater degree of change.
A report in 2009 by the Stockholm Environment Institute together with
the United Nations Development Programme talked of "enormous" changes
in Armenia's climate over the next century, with likely increases in
temperatures of 4.5°C in the lowlands and 7°C in the highlands by
2100.
Water supplies - already a serious problem in many areas - are likely
to come under increased strain as rainfall decreases, said the report,
causing agricultural production to fall by nearly 10 per cent.
Money to Survive
Vardan Hambardzumyan is president of the Armenian Federation of
Agricultural Associations.
"We are fully aware how climate change will affect agriculture" he
says. "We have to safeguard our water and land resources: we have to
protect our forests. Armenia plays a very small role in the problem of
climate change - but that doesn't mean we should be ignorant of its
impacts."
Hambardzumyan says there's a need to develop new seeds to resist
rising temperatures and to use cattle better able to withstand the
heat.
"We also need innovative technology - and help from international
organisations."
Meanwhile the farmers in the Ararat Valley who lost their crops due to
the freak hailstorm are insisting that the government gives them
financial support.
"We don't live in luxury" says one farmer. "All we're asking for is
money to survive through the year."
Another farmer points to one of his prize cherry trees. "Usually I'd
get a hundred kilos from this tree. My cherries were famous. People
would queue up for them. This year I'll maybe get a couple of buckets.
The rest go to the pigs - and even they are fed up and don't eat
them."
Climate News Network
http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2013/06/24/3787091.htm
June 24 2013
Caucasus farmers a picture of climate change
By Kieran Cooke ABC Environment 24 Jun 2013
Armenian farms have suffered devastating losses from changed weather
patterns. But their experience may become unremarkable as climate
change takes hold.
IT HAPPENED AS Tigran Gasparian and his family were having lunch. A
massive black cloud turned day to night in minutes. Then the hail
hammered on the roof.
"It was deafening", says Tigran. "I've never seen anything like it.
The winds swirled around - like a tornado. It went on for 45 minutes.
At the end the hail was falling in big pieces like bits of broken
glass. We knew all our crops had been destroyed."
Farmers here have heard talk of climate change: many say the summers -
when temperatures can reach near to 40°C - are becoming hotter while
winters are getting colder.
"Maybe the climate is changing" says Anoosh, Gasparian's wife. "Or
maybe the hail was sent by God as punishment for the way our country
is chopping down its forests and destroying its landscape."
Armenia, a small country in the South Caucasus region with a
population of a little over three million, is highly dependent on its
agriculture and is famous for its fruits and herbs. Agriculture
accounts for about 20 per cent of gross domestic product.
Cut to shreds
Most of the country's 340,000 farms are relatively small with plots of
one hectare or less: there is little spare cash to fall back on when
crops fail.
"Our apricots, peaches, watermelons, and tomatoes were cut to shreds,"
says Tigran. "Usually we'd harvest about 35 tonnes of grapes - this
year we'll be lucky if we have 50 kilos."
The Gasparians' land is in the Ararat Valley, about an hour and a
half's drive from Yerevan, Armenia's capital. Sitting under the shade
of cherry trees - a cuckoo calling in the distance and the snow capped
peak of Mount Ararat in Turkey on the horizon - it is, in many ways, a
perfect pastoral scene.
But life here is tough. Produce has to be taken along badly potholed
roads to the capital. Armenia, until 1991, was part of the old Soviet
Union. For many farmers, adjusting to a market economy has not been
easy. Many are leaving the land: both the Gasparians' sons - now in
their 20s - are going soon to jobs in Russia.
"With our crops destroyed, there is nothing for us here" says one.
Changing weather
There are often hailstorms in Armenia and throughout the rugged and
mountainous Caucasus region but the ferocity of this one - happening
in mid May when crops were just coming to life - was highly unusual.
Armenia is a mountainous country with a generally arid climate and is
judged to be particularly vulnerable to changes in climate. Zaruhi
Petrosyan is a meteorologist at Armenia's Ministry of Emergency
Situations.
"Usually hailstorms last for only five or seven minutes" she says.
"This was a very strange meteorological phenomenon. There are changing
weather patterns in some regions but just how significant these are is
difficult to estimate."
Petrosyan says while calculations are changing all the time, Armenia
is likely to see temperatures rise by between one and four degrees
Celsius by century's end though average rainfall is likely to drop by
six per cent.
But international bodies predict a far greater degree of change.
A report in 2009 by the Stockholm Environment Institute together with
the United Nations Development Programme talked of "enormous" changes
in Armenia's climate over the next century, with likely increases in
temperatures of 4.5°C in the lowlands and 7°C in the highlands by
2100.
Water supplies - already a serious problem in many areas - are likely
to come under increased strain as rainfall decreases, said the report,
causing agricultural production to fall by nearly 10 per cent.
Money to Survive
Vardan Hambardzumyan is president of the Armenian Federation of
Agricultural Associations.
"We are fully aware how climate change will affect agriculture" he
says. "We have to safeguard our water and land resources: we have to
protect our forests. Armenia plays a very small role in the problem of
climate change - but that doesn't mean we should be ignorant of its
impacts."
Hambardzumyan says there's a need to develop new seeds to resist
rising temperatures and to use cattle better able to withstand the
heat.
"We also need innovative technology - and help from international
organisations."
Meanwhile the farmers in the Ararat Valley who lost their crops due to
the freak hailstorm are insisting that the government gives them
financial support.
"We don't live in luxury" says one farmer. "All we're asking for is
money to survive through the year."
Another farmer points to one of his prize cherry trees. "Usually I'd
get a hundred kilos from this tree. My cherries were famous. People
would queue up for them. This year I'll maybe get a couple of buckets.
The rest go to the pigs - and even they are fed up and don't eat
them."
Climate News Network
http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2013/06/24/3787091.htm